March – April 2014

CHEAP THRILLS follows the one-night descent of two friends participating in a series of escalating paid dares to entertain a wealthy couple with a twisted sense of humor. After down-and-out family man loses his job and is served an eviction notice, he runs into his long-lost deadbeat pal at a bar. As the two drink their troubles away, they are lured by a couple celebrating a birthday, who shell out obscene wads of cash in exchange for taking on harmless bets. The party continues to a strip club and eventually to the couple’s home, where the cash payoffs increase wildly as the challenges become more outrageous, hilarious, illegal and even downright inhuman. Drugs and laughter give way to sex, firearms, felonies and self-destruction. Directed by E.L. Katz. 2014. Digital.

In the middle of an uneventful summer on the outskirts of Brooklyn, Lila, a lonely fourteen-year-old from Gravesend, turns her attentions to Sammy, an older thug she sees at Rockaway beach. Wanting something to brag about, she weaves a story about him and becomes fixated on seeing it realized. When her attempts fail, she propels the lie even further, claiming they’ve had sex. During her sexual quest, Lila turns from predator to prey. IT FELT LIKE LOVE captures the confusing emotions and developing identity of an adolescent girl that explores what could euphemistically be called love. Starring Gina Piersanti. Directed by Eliza Hittman. 2013. Digital.

Hailed by Michael Moore as “one of the best documentaries about a band that I’ve ever seen” and by Pitchfork as “the funniest, most meta music movie since SPINAL TAP,” MISTAKEN FOR STRANGERS is a truly hilarious, unusual, and moving film about two brothers, Matt and Tom Berninger.

Matt, the lead singer of the critically acclaimed rock band The National, finally finds himself flush with success. His younger brother, Tom, is a loveable slacker – a filmmaker and metal-head still living with his parents in Cincinnati. On the eve of The National’s biggest tour to date, Matt invites Tom to work for the band as a roadie, unaware of Tom’s plan to film the entire adventure.

What starts as a rock documentary soon becomes a surprisingly honest portrait of a charged relationship between two brothers, and the frustration of unfulfilled creative ambitions. Directed by Tom Berninger. Digital. 2013.

“Searing… …an engrossing character study and a biting social statement that works on so many levels, it’s hard to separate them all.” – San Francisco Chronicle

Călin Peter Netzer’s sharply crafted CHILD’S POSE pivots on a riveting performance by Luminita Gheorghiu (Best Supporting Actress, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, Los Angeles Film Critics) as a steely, well-to-do Bucharest architect determined to keep her 30-something deadbeat son out of jail after a deadly car crash. How far will she go to convince the police, eyewitnesses and even the victim’s family that her son was not recklessly speeding? A spellbinding drama of social commentary and psychological realism, this caustic look into the corrupt heart of the Eastern European bourgeoisie twists into a brilliantly ambiguous study of obsessive motherly love. The Official Romanian Entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards. Digital. 2013.

“Perversely engrossing thanks to Gheorghiu’s performance as the queen of denial.– Newsday

How did a casual party game designed for the family become one of the most watched fighters in the history of competitive gaming? From East Point Pictures, THE SMASH BROTHERS chronicles the saga of the small yet passionate community responsible for this transformation and provides a rare account of the real lives beyond the controller. The documentary series follows the top seven “smashers” of the last decade, and examines the shaping of the competitive Smash Brothers scene as it exists today. All profits will be donated to Child’s Play. Directed by Samox. 2013. Digital.

A FRAGILE TRUST tells the shocking story of Jayson Blair, the most infamous serial plagiarist of our time, and how he unleashed the massive scandal that rocked the New York Times and the entire world of journalism. In 2003 Blair was caught plagiarizing the work of other reporters and supplementing his own reporting with fabricated details in dozens of different stories published in the Times. The ensuing media frenzy left a major blemish on the history of the ‘Old Grey Lady’, which just a year earlier won a record 7 Pulitzer prizes for its coverage of 9/11. It was a spectacular fall for both Blair and the paper. The daily operations of the Times newsroom became a public spectacle as every major news outlet picked up the story and ran with it. The fact that Blair is African-American was emphasized again and again as accounts of the ‘Blair Affair’ served up sordid details in a soap-opera style tale of deception, drug abuse, racism, mental illness, hierarchy, white guilt, and power struggles inside the hallowed halls of the New York Times.

Through the course of the film, we follow Blair as he slowly unravels in the face of mounting pressures and distractions. Starting with his ‘reporting’ of the plagiarized article that ultimately lead to his undoing, we trace the rise and fall of this fascinating young reporter as he clings to his career at the Times even as he is losing his mind.

The Jayson Blair scandal is at the most basic level a compelling, character-driven narrative about an important chapter in the history of journalism. It is also a complex story about power, ethics, representation, race, and accountability in the mainstream media. Featuring exclusive interviews with everyone involved, including former Executive Editor Howell Raines and Blair himself, A FRAGILE TRUST is the first film to tell the whole sordid story of the scandal while exploring these deeper themes. With more and more publications moving to online-only formats and plagiarism on the rise, this cautionary tale about the slippery slope of ethical transgressions is more relevant than ever.

In THE UNKNOWN KNOWN, Academy Award-winning director Errol Morris (THE FOG OF WAR) offers a mesmerizing portrait of Donald Rumsfeld, one of the key architects of the Iraq War, and a larger-than-life character who provoked equal levels of fury and adulation from the American public. Rather than conducting a conventional interview, Morris has Rumsfeld perform and expound on his “snowflakes,” tens of thousands of memos (many never previously published) he composed as a congressman and as an advisor to four different presidents, twice as Secretary of Defense. These memos provide a window onto history—not history as it actually happened, but history as Rumsfeld wants us to see it. Morris makes plain that Rumsfeld’s “snowflakes”—whether intended to elucidate, rationalize, obfuscate, or control history—are contradicted by the facts. THE UNKNOWN KNOWN is an illumination of the mystery of Donald Rumsfeld, an unknown known.

Sunday, April 20 at 4:20pmCo-presented by SF IndieFestEaster Sunday and some…other…celebrated…day…we…can’t…quite…remember converge this year, and to celebrate, we’re presenting the timeless story of a neglected boy sent to magic school to learn to be the best wizard of them all. PLEASE NOTE: A spell was cast onto the soundtrack, and now it’s something magically different for this screening. Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Richard Harris & Maggie Smith. Dir: Christopher Columbus. 2001. Digital. 152 mins.Ages 18+ only!

In 2001, the tiny Pacific island of American Samoa suffered a world record 31-0 defeat at the hands of Australia, garnering headlines across the world as the worst football team on the planet. A decade after that humiliating night, they remain rooted to the bottom of FIFA’s World rankings, having scored only twice in seventeen years. They have lost every competitive game they have ever played. Against this backdrop of serial underachievement, the team face the daunting prospect of a qualification campaign for the upcoming 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

It would take a miracle-maker or a madman to turn the team’s fortunes around – and in maverick Dutch coach Thomas Rongen the islanders somehow find both. To complicate matters further the team’s best player has been posted 6000 miles away by the US military. Rongen has just one month to transform this ragtag of losers into a winning team – and perhaps learn a little about himself along the way. Directed by Mike Brett & Steve Jamison. In English & Samoan. Digital. 93 mins. 2014.

Join BAYCAT (Bayview Hunters Point Center for Arts and Technology) for the PREMIERE of their latest youth-produced Community Cinema film, Endangered: A Healthy Bayview for All. Endangered, created in partnership with the Metta Fund, asked four BAYCAT youth to tackle the question “What does a healthy Bayview look like?”. BAYCAT will also screen several youth-produced shorts that focus on the strengths, hopes, and challenges of the Bayview community. A panel, moderated by BAYCAT CEO, Villy Wang, of Bayview leaders, youth media producers, and health professionals will follow to discuss the films, and the past, present and future of Bayview.

Free admission thanks to The Metta Fund, who are sponsoring the event and healthy snacks!